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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Dec 15.
Published in final edited form as: Neuroscience. 2011 Aug 2;198:69–94. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2011.07.061

Fig. 9.

Fig. 9

Direct dopamine excitation in SNr GABA neurons. All recordings were made in the presence of picrotoxin, D-AP5 and CNQX to block fast synaptic transmission. Sulpiride was present to prevent potential complications from D2 autoinhibition of DA neurons. (A) Examples of spontaneous spikes under control conditions (left) and during 10 µM DA application (right). (B) Group data of DA enhancement of spiking. (C) An example recording showing that, after blocking spikes with 1 µM TTX, DA induced a clear depolarization. (D) An example recording showing that, when voltage clamped at −70 mV, DA induced an inward current in the presence of 1 µM TTX. Note that SNr GABA neurons are normally depolarized and have a large holding current when clamped at −70 mV. Modified from Zhou et al., 2009 with permission.